The Interpreter of Desires

Would that I were aware whether they knew what heart they possessed!

And would that my heart knew what mountain-pass they threaded!

Dost thou deem them safe or dost thou deem them dead?

Lovers lose their way in love and become entangled.

On the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown reddish-white camels until they had mounted the peacocks upon them,

Peacocks with murderous glances and sovereign power: thou wouldst fancy that each of them was a Bilqis on her throne of pearls.

When she walks on the glass pavement thou seest a sun on a celestial sphere in the bosom of Idris.

When she kills with her glances, her speech restores to life, as tho' she, in giving life thereby, were Jesus.

The smooth surface of her legs is (like) the Tora in brightness, and I follow it and tread in its footsteps as tho' I were Moses.

She is a bishopess, one of the daughters of Rome, unadorned: thou seest in her a radiant Goodness.

Wild is she, none can make her his friend; she has gotten in her solitary chamber a mausoleum for remembrance.

She has baffled everyone who is learned in our religion, every student of the Psalms of David, every Jewish doctor, and every Christian priest.

If with a gesture she demands the Gospel, thou wouldst deem us to be priests and patriarchs and deacons.

The day when they departed on the road, I prepared for war the armies of my patience, host after host.

When my soul reached the throat (i.e. when I was at the point of death), I besought that Beauty and that Grace to grant me relief,

And she yielded--may God preserve us from her evil, and may the victorious king repel Iblis!

I exclaimed, when her she-camel set out to depart, 'O driver of the reddish-white camels, do not drive them away with her!'

O my two friends, pass by al-Kathib and turn towards La'la' and seek the waters of Yalamlam,

For there dwell those whom thou knowest and those to whom belong my fasting and my pilgrimage and my visit to the holy places and my festival.

Never let me forget at al-Muhassab of Mina and at al-Manhar al-A'la and Zamzam certain grave matters.

Their Muhassab is my heart, because of their casting the pebbles, and their place of sacrifice is my soul, and their well is my blood.

O camel-driver, if thou comest to Hajir, stop the beasts a little while and give a greeting,

And address to the red tents on the side of the guarded pasture the salutation of one who longs for you and is distraught.

And if they return thy greeting, once more let the East wind bring thy salaam to them; and if they are silent, journey on with thy camels and advance

To the river of Jesus, where their riding-camels halted and where the white tents lie beside the river-mouth,

And call Da'd and ar-Rabab and Zaynab and Hind and Salma and Lubna, and listen,

And ask them whether at al-Halba is She, the limber one who shows thee the radiance of the sun when she smiles.

Greeting to Salma and to those who dwell in the preserve, for it behoves one who loves tenderly like me to give greeting.

And what harm to her if she gave me a greeting in return? But fair women are subject to no authority.

They journeyed when the darkness of night had let down its curtains, and I said to her, 'Pity a passionate lover, outcast and distraught,

Whom desires eagerly encompass and at whom speeding arrows are aimed wheresoever he bends his course.'

She displayed her front-teeth and a levin flashed, and I knew not which of the twain rent the gloom,

And she said, 'Is it not enough for him that I am in his heart and that he beholds me at every moment? Is it not enough?'

My longing sought the Upland and my affliction the Lowland, so that I was between Najd and Tihama.

They are two contraries which cannot meet: hence my disunion will never be repaired.

What am I to do? What shall I devise? Guide me O my censor, do not affright me with blame!

Sighs have risen aloft and tears are pouring over my cheeks.

The camels, footsore from the journey, long for their homes and utter the plaintive cry of the frenzied lover.

After they have gone, my life is naught but annihilation. Farewell to it and to patience!

When they departed, endurance and patience departed. They departed, although they were dwelling in the core of my heart.

I asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and I was answered, 'Their noonday resting-place is where the shih and the ban trees diffuse a sweet scent.'

Then I said to the wind, 'Go and overtake them, for they are biding in the shade of the grove,

And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from his people.'

As I kissed the Black Stone, friendly women thronged around me; they came to perform the circumambulation with veiled faces.

They uncovered the (faces like) sunbeams and said to me, 'Beware! for the death of the soul is in thy looking at us.

How many aspiring souls have we killed already at al-Muhassab of Mina, beside the pebble-heaps,

And in Sarhat al-Wadi and the mountains of Rama and Jam' and at the dispersion from 'Arafat!

Dost not thou see that beauty robs him who hath modesty, and therefore it is called the robber of virtues?

Our trysting-place after the circumambulation is at Zamzam beside the midmost tent, beside the rocks.

There everyone whom anguish hath emaciated is restored to health by the love-desire that perfumed women stir in him.

When they are afraid they let fall their hair, so that they are hidden by their tresses as it were by robes of darkness.'

Their abodes have become decayed, but desire of them is ever new in my heart and decayeth not.

These tears are shed over their ruined dwellings, but souls are ever melted at the memory of them.

Through love of them I called out behind their riding-camels, 'O ye who are rich in beauty, here am I, a beggar!

I have rolled my cheek in the dust in tender and passionate affection: then, by the true love which I owe to you, I, do not make hopeless

One who is drowned in his tears and burned in the fire of sorrow with no respite!'

O thou who wouldst kindle a fire, be not hasty! Here is the fire of passion. Go and take of it!

Flashes of lightning gleamed to us at al-Abraqan, and their peals of thunder crashed between the ribs.

Their clouds poured rain on every meadow and on every quivering branch that bends towards thee.

The watercourses were flooded and the breeze wafted perfume, and a ringdove flapped her wings and a twig put forth leaves.

They pitched the red tents between rivulets (creeping) like serpents, amongst which were seated

Friendly damsels, bright of countenance, rising like the suns, large-eyed, noble, of generous race, and limber.

She said, 'I wonder at a lover who in conceit of his merits walks proudly among flowers in a garden.'

I replied, 'Do not wonder at what thou seest, for thou hast beheld thyself in the mirror of a man.'